I'm not sure we need yet another zombie movie, but it looks like this latest installment in the genre wears its extremely low budget nature as a badge of honor, for better or worse.

Movie Grade: D

DVD Grade: C

Another week, another zombie-related item hits a store’s shelves, premieres on TV, or opens at a local
multiplex. It seems like only yesterday when all we had to talk about, zombie-wise was how great the original Dawn
of the Dead is, and how the original Night of the Living Dead started it all. Now, the genre is as undead as its
subject matter, with TV shows like The Walking Dead breaking ratings records (on cable, no less), and the list of
available zombie movies on home video and in theaters in a given week, growing exponentially. There’s even room
in super-low-budget, direct-to-DVD land for the brain-starved, as evidenced by Image Entertainment’s new release
of Dead Season. Unfortunately, this amateurish (on most, if not all levels) flick, is far too forgettable, and will only
leave die-hard undead fans going back to the “Romero Well” over and over again, rather than granting it a second
glance, let alone a repeat viewing.

The plot is as formulaic and clichéd as it gets, focusing on a small group of zombie plague survivors that wind up on
a seemingly safe island. It gets worse, as this group consists of characters that are hardly memorable or easy to
forget, and they’re portrayed by actors who seemingly were hired the minute they left rehearsal at their local
community theater. Director Adam Deyoe is far from a seasoned veteran behind the camera, and I’d be shocked if
producers were knocking down his door after enduring Dead Season. Ok, there’s maybe a handful of worthwhile
stuff here, including some pretty brutal, heart-tugging stuff near the 15-minute mark. This was so shocking and sad,
that I actually had a bit of hope for the remaining 70+ minutes of Dead Season. It didn’t take long before those
faint hopes were dashed, and we’re back to simply waiting and wanting for the end credits to roll.

Image Entertainment’s DVD includes an anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 presentation that has difficulty handling
contrast and black levels, but do feature nicely detailed images throughout. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix shows a
decent amount of surround usage and directional effects, but this is nothing spectacular, despite clear dialogue
throughout. The extras include a quick making-of piece that’s nothing but on-location footage, 15-minutes of
deleted scenes, including an alternate sequence, a collection of amusing outtakes, and the film’s trailer. There’s also
an audio commentary track with director Adam Deyoe, producer/editor Loren Semmens, actor Scott Peat, and
director of photography Jeffrey Peters. This is an informative piece that drags at times, but, ultimately should be
appealing to those that latch on to this zombie flick.